Arthur Claybourne
'Arthur Claybourne '''was a businessman and an associate of Victor Marlowe, Rupert Thorne, and Roger Jones. Before having become a businessman, he was a wealthy doctor who worked in Arkham Asylum. His company was training power from the city of Gotham and deliberately causing brownouts in the Narrows. He was then killed by Bruce Wayne as the Knight. However, sometime after his death, a man named Hush suddenly appears claiming to be his son. Claybourne is portrayed by Galen Engen and is a minor but significant villain in the show. Biography Arthur Claybourne and Thomas Wayne both went to medical school together where they met Martha Kane and Celia Kazanathakakis, both women renowned for their beauty. Claybourne became Celia's lover while Thomas became Martha's lover. At the age of 22, Celia is confronted by Martha about the Copper Street Orphanage fire. Martha did some digging around and reached the conclusion that Celia had set the orphanage ablaze and not Sandhurst. Martha followed a paper trail which proved that Celia was embezzling money from the orphanage when it was meant to go to the children. Celia brushes off Martha's anger. Martha tells Celia to leave Gotham or she will expose her for the criminal that Celia is. Celia leaves by cab and tells Martha that she doesn't want Celia as an enemy. In the meantime, Celia conceived a son with Claybourne and gave birth to him. Desperate for money in order to survive, Celia made mention of this to Claybourne. After running a DNA test, Claybourne concluded that the boy was his son which is why he bought a house for Celia in Hub City. The boy was named Richard. Growing up, the boy Richard still knew Claybourne was his father and loved him very much and Claybourne loved him in return which is why he would send five million dollars per month to his son so he can be taken care of and would often visit him from work. Claybourne, along with Rupert Thorne and Roger Jones, ran Gotham City. He used his name and status as CEO of Claybourne's Department Store to control Gotham. Claybourne had a close relationship with Floyd Lawton and his family. During his time working with Roger and Rupert, Claybourne began using Arkham Asylum, Gotham's local mental hospital, to convict people and take control of their land. Claybourne also ordered the assassination of the Arkham family when they objected to his use of the Asylum. As a boy, Floyd witnessed his older brother killed by his abusive parents when he was a child and later murdered them when he was fourteen while setting it up to make it look like they killed themselves. Lawton later discovers that despite his parents being sent to Arkham Asylum on accounts of child abuse before his brother's death, they were not committed to the prison as their doctor, Arthur Claybourne, agreed to keep them out of the asylum as long as they give him a piece of property that would eventually become the basis of his department store. At some point, Claybourne was blackmailed by Victor Marlowe to sponsor Project Avalon or risk his illegal activities being exposed to the public which is the reason why he is on Thomas Wayne's list. When Rupert Thorne ordered the Chinese Triad to assassinate Victor Marlowe for him, Victor survived and tasked Claybourne to discover who tried to have him killed. Claybourne discovers that Frank Chen was involved in the assassination and informed Victor of it. After a man called Prometheus, who claimed he was an associate of Marlowe, killed Frank Chen, Claybourne pleaded with Prometheus to not kill Frank's daughter, which Prometheus eventually agreed to. Claybourne ran an electricity company, which operated in Gotham, Metropolis, Hub, and Keystone Cities as well as managing a department store. Claybourne had his power plant drain power from the cities it operated in so that his profits can increase since he would then sell the power back to those cities at high prices. This caused the Knight to appear, forcing Claybourne to turn the company's daily wattage logs over to Commissioner Gordon within six hours. In the meantime, Claybourne had a loving relationship with his son Richard. However, that was until he realized Richard was psychotic and wanted nothing to do with him anymore. After having his son thrown out of the company and beaten by several security officers, Claybourne was secretly in the process of disowning Richard through legal consultation from a lawyer named Darren Coffman. After being threatened by the Knight, Claybourne acted quickly and rushed to the plant, getting an employee to put all of the records on to a hard drive. The man delivered the hard drive to Claybourne, only to be shot in the head. He ran away but was stopped in his tracks by The Knight. The Knight attacked Claybourne, however, he was intercepted by his bodyguard, a former Israeli military, or Tzahal. The bodyguard attacked The Knight , only to be beaten aside. Right on cue, explosives, which were set in the plant, detonated. Claybourne survived the explosion, but The Knight the explosion, but The Knight appeared to be killed. Claybourne went into hiding on 1852 West Maple, on the 30th floor and was willing to stay in hiding until the Knight's body was found at the plant. The Knight survived and killed all of Claybourne's men before finally cornering and killing Claybourne. This disappointed Victor since Claybourne was revealed to have been blackmailed by him into supporting Project Avalon or Victor would expose his illegal activities. Legacy After his death, Richard became grateful that his father's evil has ended while his mother was vengeful against Hugo Strange due to her believing him to be responsible for the death of her lover. Richard then decided to keep the fact that his father was planning to disown him a secret from his mother. Richard then legally changed his name to Victor Sage and started working for the FBI as a special agent. At the same time, Sage was moonlighting as a vigilante known as the Question in Hub City due to being inspired by the Knight. Sometime after Cisco Blaine left to rejoin the military, Sage was tasked by to lead the FBI field office in Gotham City until Blaine returned. Brant Jones, who is revealed to be Hush, was pretending to be Claybourne's son in order to show Bruce that his actions have consequences. His lover Celia would then join a villainous cabal in order to avenge Claybourne and recruit her son into it. Trivia * Claybourne having a power plant and running a department store is a reference to Max Schreck, Christopher Walken's character from ''Batman Returns. Like Schreck, Claybourne was a powerful business leader and declared as Gotham City's Santa Claus. Like Schreck, despite being a selfish and scheming man, Claybourne showed some humanity as to when he pleaded with Prometheus to not kill Frank Chen's daughter. Hush claiming to be avenging Claybourne who is his father is a reference to what Tim Burton originally envisioned for his third Batman film where Chip Shreck would try to avenge his dead father. * Claybourne would be considered to be the evil version of Thomas Wayne. This is due to the fact that Claybourne was a corrupt doctor at Arkham Asylum before founding his business empire. Interestingly enough, Claybourne knew Thomas and Martha Wayne before their deaths. His actions are later adapted in the ''Telltale ''series. * Arthur Claybourne's background ties to Floyd Lawton/Dead Shot, Brant Jones/Hush, Victor Marlowe/Prometheus, Victor Sage/The Question, Celia Kazanthkakis/Athena, and Rupert Thorne. Category:Evil Characters Category:Live-Action Category:Deceased charecters Category:Mobsters Category:Gotham Knight (T.V Series)